


heat waves

by SnorkleShit



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Body Dysmorphia, Brainwashing, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Homelessness, Hospitals, I will project and you cannot stop me, Kidnapping, M/M, Mako has hyperphantasia, Malnutrition, Multi, Mutual Pining, Post-Ruins Of The Empire, Slow Burn, Wu has anxiety and adhd, Wuko Week, mako has self image issues, sort of slow burn?, wuko week 2020
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-02
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26259313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnorkleShit/pseuds/SnorkleShit
Summary: When Wu starts acting strangely, Mako goes on a quest to figure out why, and sends them both spiraling on a collision course in the process.
Relationships: Korra/Asami Sato, Mako/Prince Wu (Avatar), Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 121





	1. royalty doesn't cry

**Author's Note:**

> dedicated to hotties for wuko and wuko nation! this fanfiction will bridge multiple themes of wuko week together! follow @wukoweek on twitter for more information.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no beta we die like the earth queen

Wu sighs as he rushes down the hallway, knowing he's already late to meet up with Team Avatar. He hates to keep them waiting, for him of all people. He wouldn't blame them if they had already left for dinner without him.

The meeting with the Ambassadors from the Northern Water Tribe had gone on far longer than Wu would have preferred, but he knew as the youngest leader, he had to be the most patient of them all. One slip up, one vented frustration in the wrong place and time, and he was screwed. 

So here he was, racing around the hall and hoping that they were still in the waiting room at the front of the building. He wouldn't blame them for leaving without him - they must have been waiting thirty minutes already - but if he got there and found the room empty, he might take a minute to cry. Just a minute, though.

He slid to a stop in front of the door, and bent over to catch his breath. Through the cracked door, he spotted familiar bodies and heard laughter. He heard his name, and froze. Were they talking about him? He pressed himself to the wall, listening more keenly.

"Oh come on Mako, you know it's true. The last time you lost your mind like that was when Korra was kidnapped." Bolin teased. 

"Two of my best friends were kidnapped, thank you for drawing that connection, bro." Mako muttered, sounding annoyed. 

"Have you ever told him that?" Asami asks. Wu feels his heart stop. They couldn't possibly be talking about him…

"What?" Mako asks.

"Wu! He calls you his best friend all the time, but that's the first time i've ever heard you acknowledge it." Asami points out. 

"Well - I - look, Wu knows I wouldn't be here if I didn't care about him, but he's already got an ego issue. I worry that if I tell him what I really think all the time, his head's gonna grow three sizes. And I like it fine the way it is." Mako huffs, but there's an edge of….fondness to his voice that Wu is scared to believe in. 

At some point during all of this, he felt himself stop breathing. Every word made it harder to start again. Mako really cared about him that much? 

"Oh come on, his ego isn't as bad as your edgy tough guy act." Korra laughed, the last words spoken in a lower tone to mock Mako. 

"I don't know, I think they're pretty evenly matched. You might even call it a match made by the spirits." Asami laughed.

"Speaking of spirits, Korra, are you sure you cant help me convince the local spirits to join the show?" Bolin pleaded.

"I don't think most spirits are interested in joining a ferret circus, Bolin." 

"It's not a circus!" 

Wu leaned back against the wall, trying to breathe as the subject of conversation turned to something other than the astounding fact that he was apparently Mako's best friend. 

Had he heard that right? Maybe it was all some joke he didn't understand because he'd come into the conversation late. No, no, it seemed straightforward...but it couldn't be. Could it?

This was too good to be true. This had to be a dream. Wu pinched himself, impulsively, and startled when it hurt. 

The slight pain shocked him out of his daze, and the reality of their words struck him all over again. He felt tears well up in his eyes as his chest constricted. They liked him. They knew he could be annoying, and egotistical, even if they might not understand why, and they still liked him. 

They didn't tolerate his presence out of duty, or pity, or grace. They  _ liked  _ him. 

Mako likes him. Mako likes him enough to call him a best friend. To worry when he's in danger, not just because it's his job.

It's not quite  _ everything  _ he's ever wanted - that particular dream involves Mako loving him as more than a friend - but it's still more than he ever let himself realistically hope for.

Wu scrubbed at his face to get rid of the cascade of silent tears, taking a deep breath.  _ Royalty doesn't cry, _ he hears his auntie say. He was always terrible at that rule. But these are happy tears, so surely that must count for something, right? 

He takes a calming breath after he's sure his face is dry. He can still hear them laughing about Bolin's idea for a spirit circus, so he counts to five to calm himself before putting on his usual attitude. 

Adjusting his collar, Wu smiles and shoves the door open as if he's just arrived. Everyone is leaning against the tables, Asami with her arm around Korra's shoulders. Pabu is perched on Mako's shoulders, and makes a trilling noise when he sees Wu before running to greet him.

Wu kneels down and puts his hand out for Pabu to climb up onto. The affection from the fire ferret threatens to make Wu cry again, so he keeps his head ducked down while he scratches behind Pabu's ears.

"There you are! We've been waiting forever!" Bolin exclaims.

"Sorry, the meeting went on for a long time and there was nothing I could do. I ran all the way here!" Wu explains as they walk towards him. Mako is smiling warmly at where Wu's hand is petting Pabu, which makes Wu's heart skip a beat. 

"It's no problem, we were having the most enlightening conversation!" Asami chimed in with a brilliant smile. Mako shot her a glare, and Wu tried his hardest not to let the blood rush to his face. 

"I've kept you all waiting long enough, let's go grab something to eat!" Wu insisted, gesturing for the others to walk out the door before him. Korra slung an arm around his shoulders and they walked out the door together, and Wu tried to memorize the feeling of being embraced by a friend. 

  
  


_____________________

  
  


Mako would like to say he noticed the change right away, but that would be a lie, because he actually has no idea when or how it started. All he knows is that Wu has been... _ off _ lately. Quieter, more withdrawn. He still smiles and laughs and dances at the most inopportune moments, but it's not the same as it was. It's softer, slower, subtler. 

It's freaking Mako the fuck out. What happened to his loud, obnoxious King? He hadn't hit on anyone in like a week from what Mako could tell. He also wasn't fidgeting with his clothes or his hair as often, which worried Mako even more. What could possibly be distracting Wu from his appearance?

Not that he was a narcissist, he knew Wu put others before himself, but he prided himself on the way he looked. Which was something Mako had to admit they kinda had in common. 

Mako knew that the thing they had bonded over back at the start was how anytime they walked past a reflective surface, they both had an instinct to stop and check their hair. It had always made Wu giggle when they did it nearly in sync. 

So for Wu to pass by fully fledged mirrors without sparing them a glance, it had to mean that something was seriously on the man's mind. At least, that was what made sense to Mako. 

What could possibly have his friend so tunnel visioned? Wu hadn't even acted this subdued after the brainwashing incident, which Mako himself still had constant nightmares about.

How could Mako make the problem go away? Worse, what if he was the problem? Maybe this was because of the brainwashing incident...Bataar Jr. had told them the memories might take time to resurface. Mako's had returned to him pretty quickly, for better or for worse.

Wu had always acted like he didn't care, like it had never happened, but maybe that was because to him it hadn't happened yet. Maybe Wu had only recently begun to remember what had happened, what he'd been forced to do. What Mako had done to him.

Mako could still remember the cold uncaring static in his mind as he had dragged a sobbing Wu towards The Chair. 

The image of Wu's tear filled eyes pleading with him as hands that where his-but-not-his strapped a muzzle over the King's mouth haunted him every time he closed his eyes. As did the memory of throwing fire at Korra and his friends.

He was glad he hadn't been able to land a hit on her, but Wu hadn't been so lucky. The King had put up a surprisingly ferocious fight when the two brainwashed brothers had dragged him to his fate, as doomed a fight as it was. The bruises on all of them might have faded by now, but Mako felt like they were still burned into his mind as evidence he had been too weak to keep control of his mind. It wasn't logical, but when had feelings ever been?

Asami's words had become stuck in his mind. It seemed like lately, Wu's ego had taken a bit of a backseat, and Mako knew that it could only be bad news. There was a difference between his down to earth moments and his recent lack of rambling whatsoever. 

Did the brainwashing memories finally resurface? Or did Mako's rule of keeping his praise to a minimum done this? He hadn't really told Wu how proud he was of him since the wedding, and that was almost a year ago. It shocked him to realize just how long ago it had been, and just how far they had come. Especially him, and his arm. 

To be completely honest, he'd been fairly drugged up at the wedding. His clarity of mind hadn't been that affected considering the drugs were busy keeping the agony of his arm at bay. If anything, they were the only thing that had given him the clarity of mind to hold a conversation after getting the skin of his arm blasted off and then slowly regrown. 

It would never be the same, but he was grateful just to be alive, and that they hadn't amputated it like the surgeon at the hospital had initially suggested. 

"The skin and the fatty tissue have been completely obliterated. Infection is inevitable. The connective tissues have been electrocuted to the point that I'm astounded his nervous system is still functioning, let alone his arm." The doctor said bluntly. Mako had felt numb, sitting in the waiting room with a nurse working on cleaning his arm because there was no more room anywhere else. He didn't want to lose his arm, but the doctor knew best, right? 

"How can you just chop my brother's arm off? What about water healing?" Bolin asked, his arms crossed as he stared down the doctor. Sweat had beaded down Bolin's brow, but all Mako could remember feeling was cold and distant, like he had been watching the entire thing transpire from outside his body.

"Look, just be grateful your brother's heart or brain didn't fry from what you're telling me. Arm or not, he's a lucky bastard. There are people with even more life threatening injuries occupying all of our water healers at the moment, wrapping it will only work for so long. A skin graft would be my usual suggestion, but with infrastructure decimated by the invasion forces -" 

"It won't be a problem. We have our own healer." A familiar voice chimed in at the perfect moment, and Mako remembered how he had sluggishly turned to see Wu standing in the doorway of the emergency room, Pema and Kya right behind him. 

That moment was burned in Mako's brain as the only thing he had truly been able to focus on the entire time. Wu had been standing there, like his knight in shining armor, with his usually perfect hair disheveled and dirt all over him. His eyes gleamed so sharply when they met Mako's, full of something Mako had recognized but was still unable to fully comprehend.

_ He looks like a King,  _ Mako remembered thinking at the time. The kind of thought that echoes through your head. 

With someone with as much authority as Wu around, there was no way he would let them take Mako's arm. He had been concerned Bolin was going to start lavabending in the hospital.

Wu and Kya had rushed to Mako's injured arm while Pema stepped in to deal with the doctor, equally covered in dirt. 

"The hand, please. I need my hand. I don't care about the rest." Mako had croaked to Kya, knowing from experience that even with water healing there was a time limit on these things, and she nodded before her hands began to glow.

"I heard I almost lost you." Wu said, his hands trembling as he watched Kya begin her work. 

"You can't get rid of me that easily." Mako heard himself say. Wu's eyes crinkled at the edges. 

"Thank the spirits you're so fucking stubborn!" Wu exclaimed, his voice breaking and tears welling up in his eyes. Mako remembered wishing, not for the first time, that he was a waterbender so he could make them disappear. 

"The thick skin helped." Mako had said with a slight smirk, unable to help himself. Wu's teary eyes widened, before he burst into hysterical laughter. 

Mako had been the cause of Wu's pain both when he was brainwashed, and when Mako had almost sacrificed himself. What if Mako was already fucking up something he didn't even have a proper name for yet?

It seemed no matter how hard he tried to protect the people around him, he still somehow ended up hurting them. 

He had a feeling a dumb joke to break the tension wasn't going to go as far this time. 

There was only one person he could think of to ask for advice. 

______________________

  
  


Korra didn't exactly have a reputation proceeding her when it came to being perceptive, but eventually it became hard not to notice something staring you right in the face. 

Mako being in love with King Wu wasn't the most shocking revelation to have before lunch was even served, but it was painfully obvious to her that when they'd teased Mako about his crush they'd hit the mark even more than any of them could have imagined.

Mako was a  _ mess.  _ He hadn't even been this much of a mess when they'd broken up. Mako was spiraling, and she hadn't seen anything like it before. 

"Mako, Wu knows that the things both of you did when you were brainwashed were out of your control. I thought we had all moved past that." Korra tried to say as gently as possible. Mako groaned, running his hands through his hair for the tenth time in a minute.

"You of all people know trauma takes time. I haven't moved on! I have nightmares every single night! You're telling me you haven't noticed a change in Wu?" Mako huffed. Korra felt her heart twist in her chest. It hurt so much to see one of the people she loved most beating themselves up over and over again. 

"Yes, I have, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing. Have you considered he's just maturing?" Korra asked.

"I would, if it wasn't so sudden! I swear, a few weeks ago he wasn't acting like this, and I can't figure out what happened. The only thing that makes sense is Asami's right and I'm a shitty friend, or the memories are starting to get to him!" Mako argued his case with desperation.

"Mako, I gotta be honest, I didn't think you were the type to pin everything on yourself like this. I thought it was my job to have the weight of the world on my shoulders!" Korra attempted to flex her muscles to accompany the joke. Forever the buzzkill, Mako didn't as much as crack a smile. 

"This is serious, Korra. I just…" Mako put his head in his hands. 

"When I was a kid, I made a vow to myself. That I would never use my firebending to do anything other than what I needed to do to protect and take care of my little brother, and anyone else I cared about. I can't stop thinking about how Guan's machine took that away from me, and it took it away from Wu, too. You know how much he hates his aunt. We made him into her and I can't imagine he's coping well with that." Mako lamented. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Korra was reaching across the table to give him a reassuring squeeze.

"You really care about him, and I think you're angry at yourself for not making it clear enough. Asami and I had a lot of trust and communication to fall back on when the brainwashing tore us apart. You and Wu don't have the same thing yet, so you're floundering because your own guilt has been eating you alive this whole time. You could be right, and his behavior could be a sign something is wrong. But you could just as likely be projecting your own pain onto him." She offered up softly, her voice full of wisdom beyond her years.

In moments like these, despite harmonic convergence, Mako sometimes swore he could hear the lifetimes of a hundred Avatars leaking through. Or maybe that was just how much pain Korra had been through in her short time so far. 

Mako offered her a tired smile. "You've gotta be the wisest person i've ever known, Korra." 

"Occupational hazard." She replied, reaching down to give his hand a squeeze before pulling back to her side of the table.

"Let's see if we can track down the waiter and figure out where our lunch went!" Korra suggested, dying to eat something after all of that emotional honesty.


	2. an ocean of energy in the void of space

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako organizes a surprise for Wu and him, and they both try not to drown in their own thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning for Mako's body dysmorphia and self image issues featuring more heavily in this chapter. Growing up homeless and hungry has lasting effects, folks. Take it from me.

Mako had taken Korra's advice to heart, and tried his best to reign in his own emotional turmoil. He decided the best course of action was to try and actually observe Wu without pushing all his own feelings onto his behavior. Easier said than done.

The best way to do that seemed to be for them both to have some time alone to relax without distractions. Again, easier said than done, in Republic City when you’re an abdicating monarch and...whatever Mako was. He wasn’t quite sure what his title or reputation exactly was in the world. Not that it mattered.

Mako knew the perfect place for the two of them to unwind. It was easy as pie to reserve a spa day for Wu and himself, but the tricky part would be surprising Wu with it. The surprise part wasn't really necessary, but Mako relished the chance to prove he could be fun.

"Where are we going?" Wu asked, fiddling with his collar as he glanced out the windows of the limo. Mako simply smiled at him in a way that made Wu blush and roll his eyes at the same time. 

"You know, Mako, I never took you for the surprise arranging type!" Wu confessed, cocking his head. 

"I'm a multi-faceted person." Mako replied, thinking back to his conversation with Korra. He hadn't considered himself the kind of person who projected their own trauma, but the truth had been hard to deny. Honestly, it felt like a lot of his life had slid into place the more he had taken himself off of that pedestal. 

He was starting to think he'd focused so much on the present and the future that he'd convinced himself that ignoring the past would prevent it from affecting him. It felt foolish, now. Childish. Not something a grown man should keep participating in.

"I know. You have hidden depths, like the ocean. No, that's not right, you're a firebender...you have hidden depths like the sun!" Wu clapped his hands together once he decided on what seemed to him to be the perfect metaphor. 

"The sun?" Mako asked, confused. Astronomy wasn't something he knew much about, ironically. He hadn’t gotten to that part of Air Temple Island's Library. Wu's eyes were sparkling with that glint that he got when he was writing particularly clever lyrics.

"Yes, the sun! I would think a firebender would understand that the sun has layers!" Wu exclaimed. 

"I thought it was just a ball of hot gas, or the Eternal Palace of Agni. Depending on who you ask." Mako replied. 

"Why can't it be both?" Wu countered, to which Mako honestly didn't have much of an answer. He'd never been very spiritual, and he'd only recently gotten into reading nonfiction just to enjoy learning. He'd never had the time to read anything growing up, and he only had enough time for the occasional corner store comic book back in the pro bending days. Jinora's books had been fascinating, but he had only really read the historical section so far. And maybe a bit of the romance section...

"The sun isn't just a ball of gas, my dear Mako. It's an ocean of energy in the void of space that is constantly consuming itself to give us life." Wu explained with conviction, and Mako found himself surprisingly moved by his description. Especially since he was comparing Mako to his poetic words rather directly. It gave a glimpse into how Wu saw him, but the vastness of his metaphor made it hard to pinpoint exactly what he was saying. Still, Mako could tell it was meaningful. 

"You really are a poet, Wu." Was all Mako could think to say, feeling his cheeks heat up. Wu shrugged, returning to the task of fiddling with his necktie, suddenly unable to look Mako in the eye. 

"It helps to have such a beautiful muse!" Wu laughed, with a nervous edge. Mako's heart leapt into his throat. Beautiful? Mako knew Wu had a tendency towards flowery language, but did he just call Mako _beautiful_? Mako, who was sitting in front of him with his plain guards uniform, bland hair and branching scarred arm? 

He might call himself hot, in a rugged kind of way, but beautiful? Wu was someone you could call beautiful, with his perfect curls, his emerald eyes, his perfect skin and - okay he was using perfect a lot but he never claimed to be the poet. All he knew is that Wu looked like someone had pulled a painting into the real world and gave it life. 

And he was a street rat who'd made a living getting his face bashed in and his nose broken by illegal headshots, and had blasted the skin of his arm down to the muscle just a few months ago. He had given all of the nutritious food to Bolin growing up, and no matter how hard he worked, he still felt the effects of those deprived formative years on his body. Bolin, Korra, and Asami had all confirmed that he didn't actually still look like a skeleton, but sometimes he looked in the mirror and saw the same walking corpse that had almost died during the coldest winter of the decade, when he was 13.   
  


All that was in the past, and now he looked in the mirror and forced himself to acknowledge how much girth he had gained, and how much muscle he had worked for. He looked healthy as the next guy to everyone else, but the shadow of the past was like a film glazed over his eyes, obscuring the present. 

Not to mention, golden eyes were still…..not exactly treasured as a desirable trait, outside the Fire Nation, even in the United Republic. A lot of people still looked into orange eyes and saw death - him included. He used to look in the mirror and wish he had something closer to his parents eyes. Even before his parents had died, he had always thought he would look so much better with eyes like his father, and Bolin. Eyes like Wu's. Eyes that reminded people of life, and beauty, and nature.

He would look so much better with eyes like his mother, dark enough to be brown until the sun hit them and made them glow. His mother had loved his eyes, and he remembered her saying something about him looking the most like his mother's father. Someone he never knew. Anything but the same burning orange glare that had stared him down over his parent's burning corpses.

He knew his facial features were desirable, and that his body wasn't actually as skinny as his brain liked to make him think, but to this day he could never look in the mirror without staring back into the same eyes that took everything from him. The same eyes that almost destroyed the world, not that long ago. How could anyone, especially the King of the Earth Kingdom, find that beautiful?

"Earth to Mako? Are you alright? I lost you there." Wu leaned forward and waved his hand in front of Mako's face, and Mako hadn't even noticed. Mako blinked dumbly.

"Sorry! I was thinking about something."

"I hope you were thinking about telling me where we're going." Wu responded.

"Not a chance."

_________

"Mako, I can't believe you remembered this is my favorite spa in all of Republic City! How did you get reservations for a surprise like this? I'm the King and it takes me weeks to arrange my schedule in advance!" Wu was practically jumping out of his shoes with excitement when they finally arrived at their destination.

"I may have gotten Korra to promise to endorse them." Mako admitted. Korra had shrugged when he asked and said it seemed fine, considering it was the only spa she'd ever been to. 

"No way! Mako, do you know what that means? That means we'll probably get reservations whenever we want for - for - forever!" Wu grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him closer as he conveyed the enormity of the situation. Mako laughed, resting his hands on Wu's shoulders. 

"Yeah, they might have mentioned something like that. I figured that would make you pretty happy. Not to mention, Korra and Asami do actually like this place." Mako bit the inside of his cheek, suddenly nervous with all of Wu's excitement and adoration directed on him in public. But it was worth it to hear Wu finally be loud again. 

Wu used to fill up every room with his voice. Lately, he had taken to staring off into the distance whenever he would have usually rushed to fill any silence with conversation, meaningful or otherwise. 

Mako wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but he knew in those moments that Wu had gone somewhere Mako couldn't follow, and it terrified him. 

Apparently, based on what had just happened in the car, Wu might feel some similar sort of concern when Mako was sometimes shoved down a different train of thought that he couldn't break away from. His habit of jumping his own mental tracks could be a hassle, but he secretly knew it was part of what made him the investigator he was. His brain made leaps with information that other peoples just didn't. 

The smell of Varrick's explosives suddenly filled his nose, so he took a deep breath to take in the actual scent of the spa. It wasn't his favorite arrangement of fragrances, but it was better than the false sensations his memories triggered. He looked around the room as Wu checked them in, trying to locate the source of the scent. Was that perfume, or incense? Or melting wax? Or scented oils? It could be all of the above, in this kind of place.

"What do you want to do first, mud, steam, or rocks?" Wu asked, turning to face his former bodyguard. 

"I like the rocks." Mako replied with a nod. 

"Of course you do, hot stuff." Wu winked, turning away before he could see Mako's reddening face twitch. 

___________________

They've had massages and hot rock treatments together dozens of times before. From the first day Mako became Wu's bodyguard, Wu had insisted he be allowed to participate in most of his recreational activities as equals. Mako had pretended to dislike it at first, but it was hard to spit in the face of a good massage. 

Every time, Wu had filled every chance for silence with his rambling. At first, Mako had tried to tune it out, but it was impossible. So he had simply embraced it and let Wu's monologues wash over him like music, which it honestly sometimes felt like. Even if he was just filling the silence, Wu had a naturally rhythmic way of speaking that Mako frankly envied. 

Lately, however, the silence had blossomed in the absence of Wu's voice rising to burn it away. Wu had stopped filling every single silence with his voice. Mako wondered if he was talking on the inside still, or if that world of noise had also fallen to the silence. 

This close together, with nothing to distract them, Mako observes how peaceful Wu seems and decides he has no clue what to think. Before, he had been so worried, but now...Wu almost seemed...content? Since Wu values communication so much, Mako figures he has no other option left but to ask. 

"You seem... _different_ lately. Quiet. It worried me." Mako says softly into the air between their two tables, breaking the confusing silence. Wu shifts to look at him without disturbing the hot rocks on his back. He opens his eyes lazily, like he doesn't have a care in the world. 

"Aw, good ol' Mako, always looking after everybody. Is that why you did all of this? You're so thoughtful, but you don't have to worry about me. I'm just...happy." Wu explains, a smile on his face that seems as natural and brilliant as the sun. It doesn't seem to take any effort at all.

He says the word _happy_ with a sigh of relief that sets Mako on edge. 

"Were you _unhappy_ before?" He hears himself asking, a little more harshly than he intended. He winces, hoping it doesn't shatter the gentle moment between them. He has a habit of doing that, when he lets his tone get out of his conscious control.

Wu's smile fades, and a little bit of tension bleeds back into him. His eyes drift over Mako's shoulder, becoming distant.

“I mean, yes and no? It’s hard to explain...I was happy on the surface, and that’s still a form of happiness, you know, enjoying things, but when you’re empty on the inside it feels like skating on thin ice. It’s fun until it’s not.” Wu usually articulates things better, but Mako thinks he understands. He doesn’t like what he’s hearing, he doesn’t like how much he understands that feeling. 

Something breaks in Mako upon realizing that there’s been something hurting Wu this entire time that Mako isn’t capable of protecting him from. He knows he can’t exactly reach into the depths of the man's soul and burn away his demons for him. Still, he feels like he’s failed somehow, not realizing just how many demons his charge - no, his friend - has been carrying around behind a dazzling smile. 

“I’m sorry.” Mako hears himself whisper. Wu’s smile only grows.  
  
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for! You’re the reason I'm happy, silly.” Wu reassures him, to which Mako’s jaw drops.

“Me? What did I do?” Mako asked in bewilderment. That wasn’t what he had been expecting. Wu glanced away, his face starting to flush. 

“I...overheard you, the other day. What you said to the others. About me.” Wu confesses, feeling his face start to burn. Why is he admitting to eavesdropping? 

Mako immediately panics, because that is terrifyingly vague. What could he have possibly said? He scrambles his brain, desperately trying to remember. 

“Before our dinner, with Team Avatar, last week. I heard you guys talking about me and I...may or may not have eavesdropped, but in my defense what are you supposed to do when the people whose opinions you care about most in the world are talking about you?” Wu explains, the rocks on his back rocking back and forth slightly with every word. 

Mako feels his own face start to fill with blood. How much had Wu heard?! Asami had accused him of having a crush on Wu, and he had tried his best to play it off, but he knew he’d done a terrible job. It was obvious to everyone, except Wu apparently, that Mako was head over heels for the King. Wait, if hearing that made Wu happy, wasn’t that a good thing? Mako was going to have a stroke.

“W-what did you hear?” Mako asks, his voice cracking uncomfortably, making him wince. He feels his own rocks wobble, threatening to topple over onto the floor. 

"That you guys like me. That you care about me. I thought you were all just tolerating my presence because i'm the King, but when I heard the way you were talking about me I knew I finally had real friends. Friends who like my head the size it is." Wu adds the last part with a laugh, but Mako's heart drops.

"Wu, I am sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I only said that to get Asami off my back about how much I really do care about you. You shouldn't have to hear me throw you under the bus because I hate talking about my feelings." Mako blurts out, his guts twisting in guilt. Wu blinks at him, taken aback.

"Mako, it's okay. For one thing, man, do I totally understand what it's like to deflect because you hate feelings, what do you think all of that terrible flirting was for? I promise, I'm a much better flirt when I'm really trying. Not to mention, you weren't really wrong. I am egotistical and I lean into it because it's easier than the truth." Wu would shrug, but he's worried about letting the rocks fall. 

Mako stares at Wu for a moment as he drinks those words in, searching his face. It feels like some sort of veil Mako only got glances behind before it has fallen away. That's the shift that had freaked Mako out so much, because he hadn't been expecting it. 

"I think I understand." Is all Mako can say, swallowing the sudden dryness in this throat. How are they so alike, in the end? On paper, it shouldn't make sense. And yet here he is, an orphan from the streets, feeling like maybe the king of the biggest nation in the world might understand him more than anyone he's ever fallen in love with before. 

"I guess you do. It becomes instinct. But it's so exhausting, isn't it? I was so tired, before I met you, Mako. And alone. When I realized you weren't going to leave me alone again, there wasn't any more reason to pretend. I'm sorry if I scared you. I've had a lot on my mind." Wu sighed, letting his eyes slip closed. 

Mako stared at the way his face relaxed as he spoke, lines of tension Mako had never even noticed finally easing. Suddenly, all he could think about was opening his mouth and blurting out _I love you, I’m in love with you, I love everything about you._

The words catch in his throat, however, and he realizes that he can’t ruin this moment. He just moved past something with Wu that he didn’t even have words for. Now wasn’t the right time to throw caution to the wind and profess his undying devotion. No matter how tempting it sounded. Their friendship was too important for Mako’s stupid feelings to get in the way, not again.

“I’ll never leave you alone.” Mako promises. And he means it. Not as long as he’s alive. They might be apart, but they’ll never be alone. That was something Bolin used to promise him.  
  


“I’ll never leave you alone either, Mako. Not unless you want me to get lost.” Wu tries to make an attempt at a joke but the tears in his eyes betray why he’s starting to choke up. Mako’s heart twists at the sight - he knows they’re probably not sad tears, but he can’t help but feel like he needs to find the problem and fix it.

  
“You don’t have to worry about that, Wu. I’m not going to reject you. I’m sorry I made you feel like I would, or like I did. I’m just...not good at people. It used to be just Mako and Bolin against the world.” Mako explained.  
  
“And now?” Wu asked, his eyes full of fragile hope. 

“Now it’s Team Avatar against the world.” Mako replied easily, smiling as he summoned up the mental image of all of his friends and family standing against evil as they had so many times before.

  
“Plus Prince Wu?” Wu asked, and Mako shook his head.

  
“Don’t be ridiculous Wu, you’re included in Team Avatar.”

  
A beat of silence ruled, and then Mako had an armful of Earth Prince as Wu flung himself across the room to embrace him. The entire table slid backwards with an uncomfortable grating noise, and they both almost toppled onto the floor. Mako managed to center them, and blinked down at Wu in bewilderment.

  
  
“I think you’re amazing with people, Mako.” Wu informed him, through his tears and snot. Mako pretended that wasn’t disgusting, for the sake of the moment. Nobody had ever told him that before, after all.


End file.
